When he
was in Makkah, Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) wrote a letter to his
loyal assistants in Harlem... from his heart:

"Never have
I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood
as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient
Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of
the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless
and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people
of all colors.

"I have been
blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca, I have made my seven circuits
around the Ka'ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad, I drank water
from the well of the Zam Zam. I ran seven times back and forth between
the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al-Marwah. I have prayed in the ancient city
of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat.

"There were
tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all
colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all
participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood
that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist
between the white and non-white.

"America
needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases
from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim
world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America
would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from
their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere
and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of
their color.

"You may be
shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have
seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns
previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This
was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always
been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as
new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open
mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with
every form of intelligent search for truth.

"During the
past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate,
drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug - while praying to
the same God - with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue,
whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of
white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the white
Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African
Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.

"We were truly
all the same (brothers) - because their belief in one God had removed the
white from their minds, the white from their behaviour, and the white from
their attitude.

"I could see
from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of
God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man
- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their 'differences'
in color.

"With racism
plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called 'Christian' white
American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a
destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from
imminent disaster - the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism
that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

"Each hour
here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into
what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro
never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to
four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But
as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences
that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in
the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and
many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth - the only way left
to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.

"Never have
I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel more humble and
unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an
American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America
a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings,
gave me his hotel suite, his bed. Never would I have even thought of dreaming
that I would ever be a recipient of such honors - honors that in America
would be bestowed upon a King - not a Negro.

"All praise
is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.

Sincerely,Al-Hajj
Malik El-Shabazz" (Malcolm X)(From the
"Autobiography of Malcolm X" with assistance from Alex Haley, the author
of ROOTS)